How Do You See Preaching and Calling

We are all aware that many religions accepts new embraces and believers every day, most of those are attracted through the process of preaching and calling.

We respect the people’s right to embrace any ideology, but allowing someone to call others to join his faith, allowing his preaching and calling activities and letting him enjoy the freedom of expanding his religion, is nothing more than allowing deluded people to spread their delusions. I see preaching and calling to join any religion as one of the most misleading and deceptive acts by any person.

Another point of view is that most of these preaching and calling activities are performed by organizations that are strongly financed by people and governments. They act with an obvious and long term political and religious targets.

Convincing someone to join a religion is a mental abuse and a deceiving behavior, for the purpose of expanding the interest, power and leverage of certain countries and religions around the world.

If we consider living in a modern and secularism society, and given the absolute fact that all religions are nothing but illusions, lies and deformed thoughts used for many reasons, shouldn’t we call to criminalize and forbid preaching and calling activities?

Replies to This Discussion

I've never had a problem with it. Cold callers are after your money, all they're after is your soul, and they can have mine if they can find it. I think I'd draw the line at engagement GC; never feed the animals.

Logically, yes. Trafficking in psychotic fantasies, forcing children to play religious make-believe, and spreading your delusions should be taken as activities harmful to society, therefore subject to legal sanction...but once again (let's say it all together) religion gets a pass.

We atheists occupy the same physical real estate as Muslims or Jews, but we live in a very different psychological reality. There's no crossing the gap.

NOPE! I am not in favor of criminalising and forbidding preaching and calling activities! I do favor speaking up when we hear or read such behavior, giving our strong opinions. We don't need to be "polite" and not "hurt someone's feelings" by naming them for what they are: superstition, fear, irrationality, anxiety, nonsense, absurdity, foolishness, and senselessness. After all, we have a right to our opinions and we have a right to speak honestly.

The JoHos targeted my former neighbourhood 20-30 years ago in particular because of a strong Portuguese immigrant presence there. (There was a spate of refugee claims in the 80s from Portuguese nationals in Canada alleging that they were persecuted at home for being JoHos ... even if they weren't. Weren't Johos, that is.)

I lost track of the number of times I was doorbelled out of my Saturday morning soak in the bathtub by one of their crews. I had printed up a little sign for the door (that delivery people sometimes admired and asked for a copy of!) directing them and other proselytizers to leave my front porch, but it wasn't always effective.

I wrote to the local Kingdom Hall informing them that their people were not welcome at my door and would be considered trespassers if they appeared there and directing them to instruct their people not to come onto my property, and requesting confirmation that this instruction would be followed, which I received, and it was. I did find I had to repeat it every 5 years or so; presumably they thought they'd take a chance I had moved. ;)

If I want to discuss religion with someone, I'll do it at a time and place of my choosing, not theirs, and in particular not when I'm in the bathtub!

A strange update on my family is when I called my JW cousin 2 days ago. His parents are now both dead but they raised him as a JW. He was never active with it very much after his first marriage fell apart. He has been re-married again for several years now.

I got into my belief system today without using the word "atheist." Simply telling him I am now a non-believer he says that he agrees with me on this, but I'm sure he never tells the rest of his family that he no longer believes.